"To persevere against the unbeatable scourge"

Former NAT therapist.

[healthesick]

I can't believe it.

Our government's doing a partial credit subsidy next spring. For people who will be nineteen. Since we won't benefit from the planets.

I don’t deserve this

I’ll hurt them

I shouldn’t

I already messed up one kid

[healthesick]

Do you think anyone in your family is going to do the space thing?

They’re talking about it. Masiu thinks they’ll probably need a lot of daycare workers. Since so many people will be having kids. They want to make a decision with Lekzi and Kelolin. And Lekzi and Kelolin have lower priority jobs.

Tamsen wants to go to space. She’s been singing the space song everyday. They probably won’t let families with kids go for a while though. There needs to be infrastructure first.

[there-is-water]

I’m seeing people saying “of course potential aliens would have the same feelings about pollution as us they’re not evil.”

Hello, hyposensitives exist.

[healthesick]

Most untreated hyposensitives are evil.

[healthesick]

iiick. Don't stab someone, there'll be a corpse right in front of you!

If they attack me I won’t have much choice. I’m not going to let them attack me.

[healthesick]

haha, are you gonna stab them with your knitting needles

Or with a knife.

[healthesick]

What does "I'm prepared" mean. Do you think you're grey again?

Self-defense isn’t only for greys.

[healthesick]

If you want to fuck garbage, better hurry up, time window's gonna close!

I would rather die.

[healthesick]

No! Don't fuck the garbage! Do not fuck the garbage! How could you say to fuck the garbage!

Is this a translation thing? Obviously you shouldn’t fuck garbage. That’s awful.

[healthesick]

Found a new knitting project.

[x]

[healthesick]

If the test works we’re pushing up the cleaning timeline. And all our garbage will be going to Miolee. Except the garbage in my city.

It’s worth it. I hate that it’s worth it. It’s a dumb and evil and horrible condition. But it’ll get us FTL. Even if it won’t help me.

My grandbaby will barely remember a time before FTL.

[healthesick]

“Fine,” spat Birane.

“Mom, you don’t have to.”

“But you clearly want me to.”

#

He looked just like his father had when he was six, save the hair color. Birane winced when she saw him.

“So you’re Kalil,” she said, trying to keep the venom out of her voice. From the look Masiu gave her, she could tell she hadn’t succeeded.

“And you’re Birane,” he said.

“Yes. What do you want from me.”

“I didn’t ask to meet you because I wanted something from you,” he said.

“Why, then? Garbage like you has ruined enough of my life.”

“Mom, be nice,” said Masiu.

“I’m sorry about your husband,” said Kalil.

“Don’t bring him up.”

“Sorry,” said Kalil.  

“Tell her the story,” said Masiu quietly.

“When I was little I used to pretend that the reason I had orange hair was because I was secretly meant to be orange, and that it would turn out I didn’t really have any red parents--” he flinched “-- and -- then I found out -- I don’t know why he wants me to tell you this--”

“Why didn’t you want to be red?” prompted Masiu.

“We were polluted all the time -- people think all of us are hypo but there are some meso ones, I’m one of them--”

Masiu looked at Birane. “They aren’t all hyposensitive,” he said.

“I know that,” she said.

“You do?”

“The one in Voa was fucking hyper, knew that garbage like it didn’t matter, knew that garbage was evil--”

“--Mom, stop--”

“--I thought maybe I’d finally found one that wasn’t utterly evil. Didn’t stop it from fucking your dad, from letting him-- letting him-- letting--”

“--Mom--”

Birane had drawn in her arms around herself and was looking away. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“That’s fine, you don’t have to, can you please stop calling my half brother garbage?”

“Fine.” She looked at Kalil. “Cleaned garbage like you has ruined enough of my life.” She looked back at Masiu. “Better?”

Masiu closed his eyes. “Just because he reminds you of Dad doesn’t mean you have to act like this.”

“Fuck you,” said Birane. “--I’m sorry. Please don’t bring him up.” I don’t want to think about what he did.

Kalil looked at Masiu. “Should I go?”

“It’s up to you.”

He left.

[healthesick]

Fuck the garbage. All of it.

[healthesick]

How is your kid and their spouse handling babysharing along with keeping your shitty ex away from you? Is he just not getting any baby time?

He’s dead.

We’re not letting him see the baby.

[healthesick]

How are you? Are you still fighting with your son? Are you still fanatical about NAT? Are you still weirdly obsessed with tax fraud or did you get over that? Have you learn how content warnings work yet?

I’m surviving. My son and I are fine. We weren’t fighting. I still support NAT. Tax fraud is still bad. I tag for plenty of things. You can ask if you want something else tagged.

[healthesick]

That's a weird way to do it. Is't the government worried the cleaned reds will sneak contraband to the district reds or something.

A lot of countries have done it that way. I’m not a blue. So I don’t know much about the politics. I’d have done it the Orvaran way.

[healthesick]

Are the ones that got integrated allowed to go to other cities? I hope there's something in place to keep them from collaborating. Please stay safe that sounds really scary. :(

I think they’re allowed to travel. But I’m in the test city. So that doesn’t make anything worse for me. I think they’d get in trouble if they visited a district.

[healthesick]

How was the Arctic vacation? Did you see any bears? I hope it was really fun!

I wasn’t on the vacation. My son and his husband and Lekzi and Kelolin were. They didn’t see any bears. It was cold. But they made a baby.